For the past eight years, Kathryn Durnford has been chatelaine of, if not quite her own castle, then certainly a goodly chunk of someone else’s.

Lullingstone Castle has been the seat of the Hart-Dyke family since 1361, but over the years its 10,000 acres of prime Kent parkland have been whittled to 142 and the house opened to paying visitors. While the Hart-Dykes still occupy the main castle, they have also hived off its sprawling south wing into a self-contained four-bedroom house, which Kathryn fell for in 2002.

Until she moved to Lullingstone, near Eynsford, the closest Kathryn came to stately homes was touring National Trust properties at weekends.

For that you will get, as well as four bedrooms and a lot of outside space, a home that is dripping with history. King Henry VIII hunted there and Queen Anne was a regular visitor. In 1875 the incumbent Hart-Dyke, Sir William, is reputed to have invented lawn tennis, rigging up a ladder supported on two barrels for a net, while later an entrepreneurial Hart-Dyke established a silk farm on the estate and was on hand to supply the stuff for Queen Elizabeth’s wedding dress in 1947.

The 20th generation of Lullingstone Hart-Dykes are not without their share of colour. Tom Hart-Dyke, 34, who lives in the castle’s Tudor gatehouse, has established a World Garden in the grounds, stuffed with rare species, which attracts thousands of horticulturalists every year.

The project was born in the most extraordinary circumstances. In 2000, while on an extended gap year, Tom and a friend decided to trek into Colombia’s highly dangerous Darién Gap in search of rare orchids. The pair were kidnapped.

During his ordeal Tom sketched out the idea for the garden and when he was released, without explanation, after nine months, he returned home to bring it to life.

Tom says he has been delighted by Kathryn’s impact on the south wing. “Oh, it was awful,” he says. “There were buckets to catch the drips because the roof leaked. She has totally transformed it.”

Kathryn bought the property (which has a 125-year lease and a £1,000-a-year service charge) for £1 million. Willow (01959 525202) and Fine & Country (01474 700009) are the selling agents. A similar property without its castle context would be worth significantly less – between £1.35 million and £1.45 million.

Buying a fraction of an architectural gem is a way to live in historic grandeur, for a fraction of the cost (and responsibility). On the plus side, you get killer kerb appeal and stacks of original features, and you don’t have to take responsibility for maintaining your elegant grounds.

The downside is that most of the properties are sold leasehold, which may not appeal, and service charges can be high.

If that doesn’t deter you then one of the most magnificent options, in striking distance of London, is Hill Hall, in Epping, Essex, a Grade I listed Elizabethan pile within 20 acres of lakes, lawns and tennis courts.

Hetheringtons (01992 815314) is selling an immaculate three-storey, three-bedroom mansion apartment within a wing of the main house, with a guide price of £845,000.

The Refectory, in East Grinstead, West Sussex, is a converted chapel within a Grade I listed convent designed by George Edmund Street, who also built London’s Royal Courts of Justice.

It has four bedrooms, a private cloister and shared communal area with pool and tennis courts (through Chesterton Humberts, 01342 326326, for £950,000). The property was on the market two years ago, for £1.5 million – an example of how vendors are having to adjust their prices in the current market.

Another property with wow factor is Temple Grove in Buxted, East Sussex. This imposing Jacobean-style Grade II listed house was once a prep school – alumni include Harold Macmillan and Douglas Bader – but has been converted into 14 apartments and mews houses, priced from £495,000 to £750,000.

It was designed by JF Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral, but modern-day embellishments include an underground car park, swimming pool and tennis courts. There are also 14 acres of communal grounds (Batcheller Thacker, 01444 453181).

Gilston Park, built in 1852, is a Gothic dream and couldn’t be more imposing if it tried. Fine and Country (01279 427839) is selling a two-bedroom apartment in the Grade II house, near Harlow in Essex, for £750,000.

But if you are looking for something a little more substantial, Apley Hall, in Shropshire, could be just the thing. A six-bedroom property (with room for staff) in the redeveloped Grade II mansion is on the market with Savills (01952 239500) for £1.75 million.